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Ray Optics Module

New Part: Aspheric Lens

Aspheric lenses are often used as an alternative to spherical lenses to reduce monochromatic aberrations. An aspheric lens is now included in the Part Library for the Ray Optics Module. The depth, or sag of the curved surface is defined using a standard aspheric formula in which the values of all coefficients are given as input parameters.

A typical aspheric lens.

A typical aspheric lens.

Release Rays from Edges and Points

It is now possible to release rays from edges in 3D using the new Release from Edge feature, and to release rays from selected points using the new Release from Point feature. When releasing rays from edges, you can select any set of edges and release rays either uniformly, based on the mesh, or with initial positions weighted according to a user-defined density function.

Rays can be released from any set of edges in the geometry, such as the three edges on the surface of a sphere shown above.

Rays can be released from any set of edges in the geometry, such as the three edges on the surface of a sphere shown above.

New Options for Density-Based Release of Rays

The release features that initialize ray positioning according to a density function have new settings that make them more accurate. You can now specify a Release distribution accuracy order and Position refinement factor in the settings for the Release, Inlet, and Illuminated Surface nodes as well as the new Release from Edge node. The improvement in accuracy is most noticeable when the underlying mesh is very coarse or the density expression varies significantly across different mesh elements.

With the new options for density-based release, it is possible to sample the initial ray positions from a Gaussian distribution with high accuracy, even if the surface mesh is extremely coarse.

With the new options for density-based release, it is possible to sample the initial ray positions from a Gaussian distribution with high accuracy, even if the surface mesh is extremely coarse.